Shared Sufferings

  by Jennifer Wren Call 

Together we left 

others behind. 

Rock and roll, 

in dungarees and grime. 

We slept in heat, 

woke in noise, 

shared one spoon 

and called it joy. 

The air was JP and salt,

our bonds grew thick. 

as Laughter cracked 

where time felt set. 

You remember that? 

The storm that stayed. 

The tired mind. 

The games we played. 

Since that time  

every home is a palace 

compared to that can— 

Hell spent 

became our cement. 

We moved off the grid, to the grids, 

through perils to safeness. 

A time became a gilded epoch. 

What makes it gold? 

Not comfort’s call— 

but who you have 

when comforts fall.